Business Report :
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has no dedicated funding facility to support either renewable energy or energy efficiency, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) Lead Energy Analyst Shafiqul Alam said on Wednesday.
“Though there are a number of re-financing schemes for supporting export-oriented industries to take green measures, there is no dedicated funding facility from Bangladesh Bank for promoting renewable energy or energy effacing,” the analyst said while making a keynote presentation at a seminar in the 2-day National Renewable Energy Conference and Green Expo-2024 that started at the Nawab Nawab Ali Senate Building in Dhaka University from Wednesday.
Institute of Energy at the University Dhaka and Greentech Foundation are jointly organising the 24th national conference and expo in collaboration with USAID, SREDA, IDCOL, Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh (FERB) and BSREA.
Abdulkader ED Elrahal, chief of part of USAID, Bangladesh Advancing Development and Growth Through Energy (BADGE) Project, moderated the event while it was also addressed by Mohammad Hossain, Power Cell director general, Nirod Chandra Mondal, joint secretary, Renewable Energy of the Power Division, Siddique Zobair, former member, Sreda, Engineer Naznin Aktar, Director Business Development, Solaric and Enamul Karim Pavel, head of Renewable Energy, IDCOL.
Shafiqul Alam said currently there are some re-financing schemes in the country. These include Tk400 crore green re-finance schemes for which 70 environment-friendly products compete.
The central bank’s green transformation fund including $200 million, €200 million and Tk500 crore supports export-oriented industries to implement green measures.
Mohammad Hossain said that it seems there is conflicting policy regarding the target of renewable energy or clean energy by 2041 as Bangladesh outlines a vision in COP26 to generate 40% of electricity from renewable energy while the recently approved Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP) shows the target at 30%.
“The government documents are living ones and the latest one should be taken into consideration,” he said.
Nirod Chandra Mondal admitted about the ambiguity in the government plans and targets about renewable energy.